The Heart-Shaped Tin: Love, Loss, and Kitchen Objects

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Bee Wilson's beautiful, melancholy book gave me permission to get out and enjoy the breadboard I took from my beloved late aunt's kitchen. Her generous understanding of why stuff matters to us is a humane rebuke to the declutterers.--Emma Smith, author of Portable Magic

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It's quite something to write about our emotional attachment to objects without once straying into sentimentality. Both intimate and expansive, The Heart-Shaped Tin is a book I know I'll give, urgently and importantly, to those I love.--Nigella Lawson

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I love Bee Wilson and love all her books. She writes beautifully, intelligently, and with sensitivity books we want to read. The Heart-Shaped Tin is my favorite. Because cooking is about giving and receiving love, kitchen utensils hold powerful memories of love and loss, sadness and joy.--Claudia Roden

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The Heart-Shaped Tin will leave you with the urge to literally or metaphorically drink more champagne. Beautiful and therapeutic, it will help so many people.--Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People

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Fascinating and also tender. Bee Wilson is the great explorer and humanizer of our relationship with food.--Diana Henry, author of Simple and How to Eat a Peach

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Very few writers can do what Bee Wilson does. It made me think again--and with more tenderness--about the kitchen objects that I ordinarily take for granted. These are the human stories embedded in our material culture, and Wilson brings them effortlessly to life.--Ruby Tandoh, author of Eat Up!

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Bee Wilson has changed the landscape of the kitchen by breathing life into ordinary objects. Through this remarkable book, you will find yourself discovering meaning in plates, sadness in spoons, love in a measuring cup. I want to give this book to every cook I know.--Ruth Reichl, author of The Paris Novel

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Heart-wrenching and heart-warming in equal measure. No one is so good at capturing the everyday magic of kitchens, cooking, and life as Bee Wilson.--Letitia Clark, author of Bitter Honey

Brief Description:
"One August day, months after the fallout of her marriage, a heart-shaped cake tin fell at Bee Wilson's feet. Not just any cake tin-the one she had used to bake her wedding cake twenty-three years ago. This sudden discovery strikes a wave of emotion that will steer her on a sprawling exploration of kitchen objects and our emotional responses to them. Wilson finds others who have also invested objects with strong meanings and emotions, discovering the ways in which kitchen utensils can become symbols of love and friendship, steadfast household companions, tools of whimsy and joy, and even emblems of political resistance. From a grandmother's prized china collection to a Ukrainian kitchen cabinet which withstood Russian bombing to Queen Elizabeth I's penchant for sieves, Wilson explores how we attach profound meanings to spoons and pots, whisks and washing-up bowls, and, ultimately, how they impact our memories and emotional well-being. The central heart-shaped tin, in the end, becomes a moving reminder of the power of new beginnings. Crossing continents, cultures, and time periods, Wilson weaves her own experiences into a wider narrative that reaches back to the earliest human civilizations. Thoughtful, sharp, and beautifully written, The Heart-Shaped Tin is a profoundly moving examination of our relationship to the physical world-and the people around us-in an increasingly rational and secular age"-- Provided by publisher.

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In this delightful book, part memoir, part anthropological investigation, food writer Wilson explores the way that kitchen objects have the power to move, soothe and even reproach us.--Kathryn Hughes "Guardian"

Publisher Marketing:

One August day, months after her marriage abruptly ended, a heart-shaped baking tin fell at Bee Wilson's feet: the same one she had used to bake her wedding cake twenty-three years prior. This discovery struck a wave of emotions that propelled her search for others who have attached magical and personal properties to the objects in their kitchens.

Wilson's best-selling Consider the Fork considered how kitchen items changed the way we eat; in The Heart-Shaped Tin, she delves into how these objects change the way we live. She meets people who open up about a favorite wooden spoon, a salt shaker inherited from a parent, and a vintage corkscrew collection. Our beloved items become powerful symbols of identity and memory, representing friendship, grief, love, superstition, safety, and even political resistance. Crossing continents, cultures, and time periods, Wilson deftly moves between a 5,000-year-old bottle for drinking chocolate and her children's favorite melon baller; a metal spoon made by a Holocaust survivor and her mother's silver-plated toast rack; a bombarded Ukrainian kitchen cabinet and her grandfather's Wedgwood teapot. In telling these stories, she comes to terms with her grief over the dissolution of her marriage and the loss of her mother after a battle with dementia. The heart-shaped tin, in the end, becomes a moving reminder of the power of new beginnings.

Thoughtful, tender, and beautifully written, The Heart-Shaped Tin is a celebration of the fundamentally human urge to keep mementos, even in an increasingly rational age. It will change the way you look at both precious family heirlooms and humble household objects.

Review Citations:

• Publishers Weekly 09/22/2025 (EAN 9781324079248, Hardcover)
• Shelf Awareness 10/31/2025 (EAN 9781324079248, Hardcover)
• Booklist 10/01/2025 (EAN 9781324079248, Hardcover)
• Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2025 (EAN 9781324079248, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:Wilson, Bee
Bee Wilson is a home cook, journalist, and author of seven food-related books, including The Secret of Cooking. The cofounder of TastEd, she writes for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and New York Times. She lives in Cambridge, England.